Adrian Gonzalez is secretly having the greatest season of all time.
In the prime of his career at age 27, San Diego Padres firstbaseman Adrian Gonzalez is secretly having the greatest season of all time.
He is actually leading the entire Major Leagues in home runs with 15, two bombs ahead of Carlos Pena and Albert Pujols. That means he is on pace to hit 68 home runs this season, 5 shy of the record, which is a pretty amazing pace.
But what makes this all even more amazing is that Gonzalez plays half his games in Petco Park–the worst hitters park in the entire major leagues. Indeed, only 4 of his his 15 homers have been hit at Petco, the place where homers go to die.
Is Gonzalez going to be able to keep up his home run king pace? Certainly not. Petco is going to drag him down in the end.
But it is amazing to think of what Gonzalez’s numbers might look like right now if his team played in even a major league average ballpark, hittingwise.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:23 am
A few weeks back I sent an email to the Umpbump gang and asked, “would you ever, under any circumstance, pitch to Gonzalez?” And of course Paul wrote back with something typically thoughtful, saying, “the only time when i feel that an IBB is understandable is first-base open with at least one-out and the next run will make or break you. even then, you have to make sure that you have the proper match up.”
But you know what? I think Paul is being a little too conservative. B/c Gonzalez is a beast, and the rest of that Padres lineup…well, it’s basically eight Pitchers and Gonzalez. I think I’d pitch around him every time, if possible.
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May 16th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Then again, I’ve had a couple of beers, so maybe I’m just feeling saucy.
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May 16th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Minx!
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